How should I react ?

from Helen

Well Christmas day has been and gone. The new year has started and life is getting back to normal. I was thinking about the gospel reading (Luke 2:15-21) that we heard this morning and started to think about the affect of that reading and the good news it contains on us. 

In order to think about this I would like to ask you to join me on a journey of imagination. 

I want you to imagine that you are different people in the reading thinking about how they reacted to the news and whether you would react in the same way.

The first person I want you to imagine being like is Joseph. A man who was betrothed to a young woman named Mary. The necessary financial agreementsbetween your family and Mary’s family had been finalised. Life was carrying on as expected. You had behaved honourably, doing the right thing. Life was good but then… shock horror Mary had some news for you that wasn’t only not the best but it shook your world.

The lovely young lady to whom you were to be married announced that she was pregnant. You knew for sure that you weren’t the dad. You had a decision to make. You could get out of this betrothal without any difficulty on the basis of Mary having rather questionable morals!

Then one evening with your mind confused, and probably in need of some serious rest you had a dream. A dream that told you that God was in control, He was responsible. Not only this but the baby was to be incredibly special.

What do you do? Well, to be honest I think that you could be forgiven for reacting by running away. However, you stuck it out and then, when the baby was born you ended up being surrounded by all sorts of strange characters worshipping your baby. 

There was something going on but how would you react? Would you stay or would you go?

The next person I want you to think about is actually a group of people. The shepherds. There you are doing your day by day job when all of a sudden the sky lights up. You may have thought that there was something wrong with youreyesight and you need to pay a visit to specsavers, or the equivalent. Then you hear singing … you know that your fellow shepherds can’t sing that well. So, you start to take notice. 

You then see angels and realise that something unbelievable and yet totally real is happening. You are told about a special baby. You could have been too scared to react. But you actually went to see this baby. On seeing Him you realise that this is something incredible – a saviour has been born. Life will never be the same again, everything is going to change and whilst you may not always betrusted and respected, due to your job, you are a very real part of these amazing events.

Then you rush off and tell everyone the good news of what you have seen. Maybe you want people to know that (much like Max Boyce) you were there boys, you were really there. How would you have reacted? Would you have gone to look? Then would you have told everybody?

I want you to imagine now that you are Mary. You are betrothed, all that is expected of you is happening and then suddenly something so out of the blue happens that you can’t quite believe it. But, you know that God has asked you to do something that is so humanly impossible it can only be from God. 

You have accepted, maybe you are scared, you have to break the news to Joseph. But then, God sorted out the difficult situation with Joseph. You had to make a journey to Bethlehem, which frankly is the last thing you wanted to do but then… the baby was born, at least His name was already sorted but then some strange men, shepherds came to see Him and talked of angels and they worshipped your baby. 

Mary treasured these things but not just in a what lovely memories these will make kind of way she thought about them, she pondered them – what did this all mean? 

How would you have reacted? Would you have been angry with God for asking so much of you? Would you have believed? Would you have rushed around not thinking about what this all meant?

The reaction of Joseph, the shepherds and Mary can get us thinking about how we react to Jesus. When things are tough and life is difficult do we stick it out trusting like Joseph did? 

When we think about our faith do we always remember that Jesus came for everyone and not just people like us? The shepherds were included in this most amazing event. 

Do we like the shepherds want to rush out and tell people the good news of Jesus, who He is and what He has done for us?

Do we take time like Mary to think about the world and everything going on in our lives and how we fit into all this?

Jesus is good news. He is with us as everyday, we can turn to Him always. But what will our reaction to all of this good news cause us to be like?

Christmas is over in many people’s minds, shops are already selling Easter eggs! But there is still rejoicing to be had as we follow Jesus and seek to be more like Him.

Perhaps our best reaction is to keep Christmas going through the year, through our words and actions as we seek to live out the most amazing news ever, to be and show that Jesus is here, the world has changed, the light has come ! AMEN